Feminist Poet Walks Out of Signet, Terms the Society 'Male Dominated'

A feminist poet walked out of he Signet Society's annual Christmas dinner Saturday night to protest what she called the Society's male chauvinism.

Anecdote

Adrienne Rich, a Boston poet who was scheduled to read some of her work into the 150 guests at the dinner, made a brief statement explaining that she though that the Signet Society was a male-dominated institution and then left the Society's Dunster St. clubhouse.

According to Janna E. Malamud '73, one of the guests at the dinner, a speech by Timothy S. Mayer '66 had prompted Rich's protest. In his speech, Mayer recounted a visit to a burlesque bar that he had made with the Society's steward, Archie Gibbon.

Rich was scheduled to read from her works at the conclusion of Mayer's speech, but instead announced that the Signet had shown itself still to be a male-dominated institution, and thus an inappropriate forum for her poetry.

Rich could not be reached last night for comment on the incident. Mayer, reached in his Boston apartment last night, said. "I don't think this sort of thing belongs in your newspaper."